Masjid Bilal, the local Houston mosque near the home of Shamsud-Din Jabbar, has been receiving a good deal of unwanted press attention since the 42-year-old drove a pickup truck into a crowd of people in New Orleans on New Year’s Day, killing 15 and injuring 35.
In a statement posted as a Facebook story, a temporary post that expires, the mosque’s management wrote that everyone is aware of the New Orleans “tragic events.”
“I want to emphasize the importance of everyone to stay very vigilant and aware of your surroundings,” per the post. “The safety of our community is the most important thing.”
“If anyone is contacted by the media, it is very important that you do not respond,” the post added. “If approached by the FBI and a response is necessary, please refer to CAIR and ISGH. It is crucial that we stay united at this time as we condemn these terrible acts. Please stay safe.” (JNS sought comment from the mosque. ISGH appears to be a reference to the Islamic Society Greater Houston.)
The Council on American-Islamic Relations is an umbrella group that initially was a partner on the White House’s national strategy on combating Jew-hatred. Shortly after Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, CAIR blamed Israel for being attacked. At some point in December 2023, the White House scrubbed CAIR from the Jew-hatred strategy.
A CAIR spokesperson told Newsweek that it was aware of the post but hadn’t talked about it with the mosque.
Morton Klein, national president of the Zionist Organization of America, told JNS that “the Muslim murderer’s mosque ordering its members to refuse to speak to U.S. authorities about a horrific anti-American, Islamist terrorist attack forces me to question this mosque’s loyalty to America and its concern about stopping anti-American Islamist terrorism.”
“Moreover, it is deeply troubling and wrong for this local Houston mosque to refer all questions to CAIR, a Jew-hating group, which praised other Islamist terrorist attacks such as the Oct. 7 Muslim Hamas atrocities against Jews,” Klein said. “CAIR’s history of supporting and showing sympathy for Islamist terrorism makes them wholly unqualified to give advice or information on any Islamist terrorist attack.”
Masjid Bilal’s “position of a deafening silence should be condemned by every American and every American political and religious leader,” Klein added. “For a mosque to refer all questions on a terrorist act to CAIR is like a black church referring all questions on an antisemitic act to Louis Farrakhan.” (The latter, who leads the Nation of Islam, has a long history of antisemitic remarks.)
“This letter from the mosque sounds like it was designed to protect the people who may have assisted the New Orleans terrorist rather than their next victims,” wrote Joel Petlin, superintendent of the Kiryas Joel School District.
